Hedda Bauer's project, Belly Belly Bread, is a micro-opera in three acts—a performative and installation-based work exploring the dramaturgy of a diva, the exaggerated expressions of Greek tragedy, and the roles of 1950s mothers at home.
All all all is transformed with drapes of colourful ribbons and knäckebröd. At the center, enormous ceramic shoes are installed to be dragged across the home. Bauer asks: How do you find your inner diva? Through body and voice exercises and with the help of their crew, they explore the lives of three iconic divas. These protagonists are positioned at home, each embodying a diva figure: the artist’s grandmother Katharina Bauer, the modernist power couple Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and the opera singer Maria Callas. Each plays a distinct role in a newly composed work in which Hedda Bauer collaborates with composer Cornelia Karlsson from the Copenhagen Conservatory of Music. This bread-home drama places divinity within the domestic sphere, weaving a narrative of sisterhood, conflict, and loyalty.
During two performances, the audience is invited to back up the diva(s) by burring—a belly support exercise—supporting Bauer as they sing the opera piece, confronting the divine presence of Maria Callas, failing, and trying again. Something is constantly moving within the home at All all all, whether it’s a crash from the bread drapes, or the sound installation ticking and dripping.
Show dates:
Sunday 4 May 2025
Sunday 11 May 2025
Doors at 15:00
CASTA DIVA
String quartet:
Jenny Asparro on violin
Marie Therese Nørby on violin
Rebekka Hansli on viola
Tiril Lorås Ystgaard on violoncello
Tonmeister:
Zende Storlind
Composer:
Cornelia Karlsson
Hedda Bauer (b. 1990, Sweden) works with large-scale installations and performance-based art. They studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna, first in the class of Monica Bonvicini, later under Carola Dertnig (BFA 2022), and most recently with Carla Zaccagnini (MFA 2024). Bauer also trained in weaving and textile craftsmanship at Stenebyskolan in Sweden, as well as in millinery at Tillskärarakademien in Gothenburg (2012–2014).
Their performative work is often ephemeral and narrative-driven. In All all all, Bauer uses edible materials to explore and perforate themes of heritage and mental illness. The ephemeral, fragile, and sensory nature of these materials reflects the complexities of mental health—its instability, its often-invisible presence, and the embodied way it is experienced.